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Friday 11 July 2008

Spain: Your (Electronic) Money Not Welcome Here


Bills are an evil that we've all got to deal with, so when you get one, you'd think it would be in the issuing company's interests to make it as easy to pay them as possible.

In Spain, though, if they had their way, we'd be paying for bills using bushels of corn, with an enforced dress code. Not one company here (Water, Electric, Telephone, whatever...) seems to want to join the information age and let you pay your bills using a bank card. What the Fuck??! Every time I get a bill, they expect me to take time off work, walk into town, and pay with cash at the Post Office. I've just had another huge rant at Telephonica over a bill I'm disputing, in the end (because they're threatening to cut me off) I just said "look, can I just pay this now and we'll sort it out later"
"Oh no, you have to take the bill to the post office."
"So what you're saying is that instead of making it easier for both me and you, and letting me give you my money right here, right now, you want me to take this bill to the post office, and take a whole day off work in order to get this sorted out?"
"yes."
"You, the telephone company, the company that connects each and every bank in Spain, probably one of the biggest companies in Spain, is not able to take a bank card number from me and take the money out of my account"
"No sir." <puts phone down>

I couldn't believe it. Well, actually, I wouldn't believe it if it hadn't happened before, but this isn't even the first time this has happened. This is now the third time that Telefonica have put the phone down on me whilst trying to deal with a problem like this. It's like they don't want my business! If telefonica wasn't the only company that allowed me to connect my computer to the internet, I'd have switched long ago. I can't even ring a number and complain, because they don't have a complaints line. They literally don't care. And, I suppose, they don't have to. If you don't like their way of doing things, that's cool, but don't expect to get internet any time soon.

So Telefonica... here it is: I hate you. I think you're all a bunch of wankers. I'm using your line right now to tell you this. Wankers.

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